1. Field of the Invention
The field of this invention relates generally to hand accessories useful for improving power transmission and improve control of the gripping and swinging movement of the hands of a human in connection with the handle of an implement, such as a baseball bat, thereby transmitting a greater amount of power and control of flight to a baseball that is struck with the baseball bat.
2. Description of the Related Art
For complete understanding of the latest embodiment 300, it would be helpful to read pages 1–8, summary pages 9–14 (previous embodiments) and detail pages 17–19 and 32–43, however, all embodiments contain components of sixth embodiment 300 and the descriptions of those embodiments may provide further understanding.
The subject matter of the present invention is an improvement over the structure defined within U.S. Pat. No. 5,180,165, issued Jan. 19, 1993, entitled HAND ACCESSORY, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,588,651, issued Dec. 31, 1996, entitled HAND ACCESSORY FOR SWINGING AN IMPLEMENT HANDLE, both invented by the present inventor, and both designed to enhance the user's gripping and/or swinging strength primarily in conjunction with a baseball bat, but also with any other round, thin handle, such as a weight lifting bar, tool, bicycle or steering wheel.
The structure of the present invention allows for a more relaxed grip on the implement handle, provides greater leverage and power, reduces stress to the hand, and also protects the hand from stinging and bruising when the implement, such as a bat, makes contact with an object, such as a ball. The effect could be described as being similar to the advantage of a vice grip over pliers.
One of the objectives of the hand accessories of the present invention is to bridge over sensitive areas (bones and tendons) within the user's hands by positioning contact points in the tough fleshy areas of the hands to 1) absorb energy and 2) support the bridges. Of great importance, the bridges connecting these contact points need to flex through the full range of hand movement during the swing, and this last requirement has been the most challenging because areas in the hand move in opposite directions to each other, and in the case of top hand grip of a bat, change directions during the gripping motion. To clarify, power from the body must flow through the hands and overcome the inertial “recoil” force of the bat against the hands during the swing, so “absorbing energy” means channeling force from the recoiling handle to not only tougher but stronger areas of the hand. (The terms, “absorbing energy or stress” from the handle and “transmission of power” from the hands are mostly interchangeable, just thought of separately depending on the objective.)
The inventor's early patents described “plugs” which were to fill certain fleshy or hollow areas of the hands in an attempt to prevent the handle from recoiling by inertia out of its proper finger grip, in other words, to support the handle. It became apparent however, that simply filling certain areas was not enough and that the structure, now more aptly described as a “bridge” or a “lever”, needs to work in conjunction with certain specific movements of the hand in order to leverage (rather than block by filling) the implement handle into a more powerful position. Because the hands are not static during the swing, the hand accessory needs to be flexible, yet still hold the handle away from the bridged over sensitive areas, which has been the great difficulty in prior art devices.
It is to be understood that all the following claims of benefits includes reduction of stress to the fingers, since stress reduction to the fingers has been accomplished in all the inventor's prior patents by supporting the handle in various ways. Therefore, the following claims and objectives include reduction of stress to the fingers.
The task has been to channel stress to, and harness and direct power from, the tough, fleshy and stronger areas during the squeezing swinging motion of the implement handle. Whenever enough material was used to support the handle in its proper finger grip position, the hand accessory became “bulky” in most pro batter's description. While some high school players have used it satisfactorily in the playing of baseball, its performance previously was not up to pro standards.
Despite discomfort and an unnatural feeling, why would “too bulky” be a detriment to swinging a baseball bat? The answer was originally thought to be simply that the hand is composed of so many sensitive areas (bones and tendons), that it was nearly impossible to contact the tough areas (muscle and fleshy areas) without affecting these sensitive areas, so the hand accessory would have to be very specific with many different angles, and no matter how much smoothing or reducing of material in the sensitive areas, it was not satisfactory unless the tough, adjacent areas nearby (sometimes within one-sixteenth of an inch) were contacted to hold the structure against the force of the recoiling baseball bat handle away from the sensitive areas. It was determined from testing that any impingement of the bony/tendon areas caused a reduction in bat speed.
It was found, however, that sensitivity was not the only problem of “too bulky”. If only the tough/fleshy areas were contacted (eliminating discomfort), but with too much bulk, it was again found that bat speed was lost, thus leading to the conclusion that obstruction of most areas of the hand's normal movement in gripping led to a loss of power. But the attempted solution of reducing the thickness of those areas would again allow the handle (bat) to press too hard, collapsing the material bridging the sensitive areas, which brings us back to the sensitivity problem, a circular dilemma. The objective was to find a way to obtain flexibility so that the hand could move through its full squeezing motion, yet the tough areas be contacted and connected in such a manner as to avoid stress to the sensitive areas of the hands and receive uniform stress in the tough “power areas”.
The hand accessory of the present invention uses many of the same areas of contact as in the previously described patents. However, the material connecting these contact areas has changed significantly, allowing for complete hand range of motion. There has also been new structure discovered both for anchoring and for bridging over sensitive areas, to broaden both the areas of absorption of stress from the handle and areas of transmission of power by the hands. More importantly, the contact area between the handle and the exterior surface of the hand accessory has changed significantly, its position and its angle being crucial in channeling stress from the recoiling handle not only to tough areas, but stronger areas which exist in the lower areas of the hand, especially the lower tough ball and wrist.
The prior art all showed a somewhat concave exterior contacting the handle, with a convex interior filling the hand. An important change in all the embodiments of the present invention is the arcing, mostly convex exterior surface, highlighted by a “bridge” which leverages the handle away from sensitive areas of the hand.
An important recent development is a means of connecting structure in the upper area of the hand with structure in the lower area to harness power from the thumb without discomfort or stress in the thumb and upper areas of the hand.
Hand Direction:
Outside or forward is toward the fingers, upper or above towards the web, lower below or downward toward the tough ball, and inward being toward the wrist. All descriptions of the hand and hand accessory correspond to this terminology.
Grip Analysis:
For clarity, a distinction shall be made between at least three phases of the grip of the top hand during the swinging of a baseball bat, and two phases in the bottom hand. TOP HAND: In phase one, or “ready grip”, the hand is relaxed with the handle located in a “finger grip” but not necessarily in the index finger, since it is primarily the little, ring, and middle fingers which generate bat speed (The little and ring finger hereinafter referred to as “lower fingers”). In phase two, the swing is initiated with the hand beginning to tighten and “tuck” under the handle led by the tough ball area. The phase three or “full squeeze” grip finds the hand reversing upwardly, and “locking” at its fullest tightened position. Phase two and three are explained more fully below.
BOTTOM HAND: There is far less movement in the bottom hand, with the handle located more in the palm than out in the fingers, the hand pivoting (closing) more below the knuckles than above the knuckles creating a rounder grip and more “hollow” palm (more space), the thumb reaching further downward, never reversing upwardly, having still greater effect of creating a more “hollow palm” than in the top hand. This motion of the bottom hand shall be called the thumb/wrist function with the thumb much further downward than the top hand. The hollow palm described above creates a loss of contact, a weakness that flared handles attempt to overcome, but the main problem is discomfort from the knob moving into the metacarpal area of the hand which can cause bruising and loss of accuracy in the swing. These problems have been overcome by the current embodiment 300.
Top hand clarification for a right hand hitter: With the handle held by the fingers outwardly against the knuckles, the inward are of the hand (including the tough ball and thumb base) pivots downward during phase two (like a door on a loose hinge hanging down angling away from the top of the door jam) the downward pivoting being allowed primarily due to flexibility in the lower knuckle joints and caused by the handle's parallel position to the ground recoiling toward the upper area of the hand, thus, the phase two “tucking” motion as the elbow of the batter draws in toward the ribs creating a slight clockwise motion of the hand with the knuckles also moving downward and toward the handle gaining more handle support and also moving into a more “cocked” position (top of hand angled back). In phase three, the hand moves to full squeeze as it uncocks and snaps forward at the wrist and within the hand itself, as the little and ring fingers tighten moving relatively toward the batter while the thumb reverses direction moving upward and outward (away from the batter) attempting to propel the handle forward, now creating a slightly counterclockwise rotation, the opposite of phase two, whereby the upper knuckles move away from the handle and the thumb moves toward the handle reducing space for the handle within the palm and creating possible bruising to the thumb second joint. During phase three, the hand ideally is flattened (as opposed to the curving hand and hollow palm of the bottom hand described above). There is little space left at this stage for any hand accessory material, and this is where the greatest stress occurs to the hand (without hand accessory) whether ball contact is made or not, as the handle is moving relatively toward the forward moving upper area of the hand, and the counterclockwise rotation drawing the second (thumb) joint nearer to the handle.
The lack of space during phase three of the top hand, created a continual dilemma until the latest discoveries were made which shall be claimed in this current invention. Another problem not completely overcome until the most recent hand accessory 300, is that while the handle in phase one is in an angle perpendicular to the ground, after the “tuck” during phase two and through phase three the hands and handle angle parallel to the ground, the lower portion of the hand traveling ahead of the upper portion of the hand, which causes the handle by inertia to force and move the hand accessory towards the upper area of the hand causing stress in that area. Testing the hand accessory by just holding the bat vertically and rocking it back and forth would often feel good, but then swinging the bat (such as in a batting cage) would cause discomfort and loss of power due to movement of the hand accessory out of its proper position even though attached to a tight fitting glove. Inertial movement of the hand accessory towards the upper area of the hand was reduced with the addition of the large, wrapping tough ball anchor found in embodiment 203. Further stabilization has now been accomplished in embodiment 300 such that the main stress receiving area is no longer in the weaker, more sensitive upper area, as current embodiment 300 channels the majority of stress to lower, tougher areas of the hand.